


Homemade Dynamite

by beeftony



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-07 22:40:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18882685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beeftony/pseuds/beeftony
Summary: Catra and Adora go fishing without a pole, and get more than they bargained for. My entry for the "Promises" fanfiction contest.





	Homemade Dynamite

_‘Cause in my head, in my head I’d do everything right_  
_When you call, when you call, I’ll forgive and not fight_  
_Because ours are the moments I play in the dark_  
_We were wild and fluorescent, come home to my heart_  
-Lorde, “Supercut”

The bulk of the Fright Zone was focused on industry, with factories churning out materials that fueled the gigantic war machine set on conquering Etheria. A menacing green haze blanketed the sky, choking out the daylight with a thick layer of smog. That was the problem with forging something new out of raw materials: the waste didn’t simply go away. It only assumed new forms.

This also manifested in the water. While there had been a few ponds and the occasional lake before the tremendous warship that formed the center of this vast mechanized hellscape had crash-landed decades ago, what remained now were cooling pools where industrial sludge was discarded and left to fester. What aquatic life hadn’t died immediately had adapted and evolved into something new, strong enough to not only survive in such an inhospitable environment, but thrive in it.

But like anything else, they still went boom when confronted with high explosives.

“Woohoo! Got another one!”

Catra raised her fist in the air, her feet briefly leaving the ground as she leapt in celebration. In front of her, the sickly green water surged upward from the force of the explosion, stopping just shy of splashing her. Grabbing a small net with a long pole attached, she scooped up the chunks of the mutated fish and deposited them in a small bucket, where Adora scrunched up her face.

“You know we’ll probably get sick if we actually eat that.”

A shrug. “So? You think those protein bars are any better? I swear I saw something moving in there one time.”

“Okay, fair point.”

“Besides,” she continued, plucking another bomb from the pile. “The point isn’t to eat them; we just need enough to stuff in Kyle’s bedsheets before everyone goes to sleep tonight. Make him think twice before sabotaging me again.”

Adora rolled her eyes. “For the last time, he wasn’t sabotaging you. _You_ didn’t look where you were going, and that princess threw him into you.”

“Only because I was too busy trying to rescue _you_ from another bot.” Her thumb depressed a button on the small, spherical explosive before tossing it into the water. “The one time I try and attack alongside you guys and look what happens. I work better on my own.”

“Don’t say that.” Her hand found Catra’s shoulder, and the other girl raised a skeptical eyebrow. “You and me always make a great team. We’re two years away from being senior cadets, Catra. There’s no one I trust more than you.”

The bomb detonated in the background and more fish chunks floated to the surface. They each grabbed a net and began to scoop them up, dropping them into the chum bucket. Catra sighed.

“I didn’t mean it like that. But that only proves my point. We’re so much better than all these other clowns. When are they gonna throw us into the action? There’s only so many fish I can blow up before I get bored enough to jump in there myself.”

“Why don’t you let me try one, then?” Adora snatched one from the pile just before Catra’s hand reached it, then she armed it and tossed it over her shoulder, not even glancing at the water. Instead of hearing the expected _sploosh_ , a metallic clinking sound reached their ears as the bomb bounced forward a few meters before colliding with a pipe.

Time slowed for a moment, and she heard an explosion behind her. Slowly, Adora turned around and saw a giant hole had been ripped in what had once been part of the pump system regulating wastewater flow to the pool where they had decided to have their fishing expedition.  Their eyes grew wide as dinner plates, and they glanced quickly at each other, then at the destroyed machinery, then back and forth a few times before an alarm began to sound.

“Run!” they shouted simultaneously, before splitting off in opposite directions.

* * *

“Okay, I think we’re clear,” Adora declared as they rendezvoused back in the cadet barracks, crouching low even though nobody else was around. “Anyone see you coming back here?”

Catra shook her head. “I don’t think so. You?”

“Not a chance.” They stood back up, and Catra snickered, crossing her arms and grinning mischievously in her direction. “What?”

“What kind of aim was that?”

“Oh, like you haven’t tried to show off before.” She smiled, stepping in a semicircle around her best friend. “Remember that time we got latrine duty for a month after we went drone racing and you almost crashed right into Shadow Weaver?”

“Actually, _I_ got the latrine duty,” she corrected. “You just helped out because you felt bad.”

“Hey, it was my idea too. Didn’t feel right for you to be the only one punished for it.” She lightly punched her arm. “Best friends look out for each other, right?”

Catra chuckled. “Yeah, yeah, don’t get mushy on me.”

She was about to respond when Shadow Weaver’s voice rang out over the intercom. “All cadets, report to the training room in five minutes for debrief. That is an order.”

Their heads whipped towards each other, and they could see the look of abject panic in each other’s eyes.

“Uh-oh.”

* * *

Lonnie, Rogelio, and Kyle were already standing at attention by the time Catra and Adora scrambled up, taking their places in front of the closed training room door. They both stood ramrod straight, not speaking, which immediately triggered Lonnie’s suspicions, what with the way Catra never bothered to stand at attention, if she deigned to arrive at all. Adora saw her eyes narrow and glance sideways at them, but the other girl said nothing.

“Does anyone know what this is about?” whispered Kyle, leaning forward and looking to Adora for wisdom. “I heard an alarm earlier, but…”

Playing dumb seemed the best move at this point, so Adora shrugged. “No idea. But you know Shadow Weaver. Always wants to keep us on our toes.”

“For good reason, cadet.” They heard the voice from behind them, and Shadow Weaver glided across the floor, inspecting each of them from behind before moving to where they could see her. All of them flinched, freezing for a moment. “In this case, however, it appears someone has saved me the trouble.”

They blinked, keeping their eyes glued to her, but Adora tilted her head to the side just a bit.

“Rebels have assaulted one of the pumping stations in sector 5,” she continued, clasping her hands behind her back. “The damage was minimal, and should be repaired within the hour. But they should never have been able to get that close to begin with. Very curious.”

They both breathed a sigh of relief, sending each other a conspiratorial glance.

“What’s more, the perpetrators appear to have scavenged our own munitions in order to do the job.” She stretched one palm outward, facing up, and summoned a shadow. From it emerged a very familiar looking grenade. “A pile of these was discovered near the site of the attack. Clearly there was a larger plan at work, but whoever was responsible aborted the mission the minute the alarm sounded. Do any of you have a theory?”

Lonnie raised her hand, and Shadow Weaver nodded in her direction. “Maybe one of ‘em blew up by accident before they had a chance to plant ‘em all. Then the alarm went off and they had to run.”

“A very astute observation. Yet all tracks from that location lead further into the main complex, before the trail ends. Why would the rebels move further inside while leaving their stockpile behind?”

“Uh…”

“Maybe it wasn’t rebels,” Kyle suggested, at which point Catra shot him a death glare. “I mean, that alarm wasn’t very long ago. They’d have to still be here.”

“Very true.” Shadow Weaver floated forward, leaning down in front of Catra until they were at eye level. Catra stared back, petrified. “What do you think? Do rebels hide among us? Or was _someone_ pilfering explosives without asking permission?”

Realization set in, and Adora’s heart dropped into her stomach. “You already knew.”

“Of course I did, what do you take me for?” Shadow Weaver stood up to her full height, towering over both of them. “Munitions lockers are _monitored_ for operational security. You can’t just take something from them without being noticed. And yet the two of you stood there and let yourselves believe I’d been fooled. I’ve come to expect that sort of behavior from Catra, but _really,_ Adora. I thought I told you to keep her out of trouble.”

“We’re sorry! It won’t happen again!”

“You’re right, Adora: it won’t. And I’m going to make _sure_ it doesn’t. Do you know how thieves are punished outside the Fright Zone?”

They shook their heads. Shadow Weaver turned to the other three members of the squad.

“You three. Return to the barracks at once.”

They did not need to be told twice, and scampered off down the hall. Catra, summoning the last bits of her courage, glared at Shadow Weaver but said nothing, while Adora looked on helplessly.

“As I was saying. The more barbaric parts of Etheria have a rather archaic approach when it comes to punishing theft, but sometimes the old ways are best. Hold out your hand, Catra.”

“What? I’m not gonna—”

“You will do as you are told!” Shadow Weaver grew taller, siphoning the light from their surroundings until everything grew dim. Dark crimson energy surrounded Catra’s body, and her hand stretched out in front of her, palm open. She trembled, eyes wide, paralyzed by the twisted magic.

Depressing a button on top of the grenade, Shadow Weaver placed it into Catra’s waiting hand, where it began to slowly beep.

“Now as I’m sure you’re aware, the fuse on these explosives is rather short. But I’ve slowed it down _just_ long enough for you to think over the consequences of what you’ve done. If you’re lucky, you’ll only lose the hand. If not…”

“Shadow Weaver, stop!” Adora shouted. “I’m the one who blew up the pump! Not her! Punish me instead!”

“Adora, you’re missing the point here.” The beeping was slow and steady, like a heartbeat, but she remained inches from Catra’s petrified face, kneeling down in front of her as if the danger posed by the bomb didn’t even register as a threat to her. “I know it wasn’t _your_ idea to use bombs for your little fishing expedition. You wouldn’t have been in that position at all if Catra hadn’t been such a bad influence on you.”

Now was usually the time when Adora would make an even more impassioned plea, trying to appeal to Shadow Weaver’s sense of mercy. But it was clear that she had none. So she did the only thing she could.

Plucking the grenade from Catra’s hand, Adora held it above her head. “I _said,_ stop!”

Shadow Weaver’s eyes grew wide with horror. “Adora, what are you doing?”

“Let her go or I blow all of us up, right now!”

The shadows holding Catra in place dissipated instantly, and she fell to the ground, eyes still wide with terror. Shadow Weaver snatched the grenade from Adora’s grasp, and it disappeared back into a summoned shadow. Her hands clenched into fists by her sides, and the long tendrils of her ink-black hair flailed with wild anger.

“ _Explain_ yourself, cadet!”

Adora stood resolute, staring her down. “That punishment wasn’t fair, and it’s not like Catra forced me into anything. I wanted to do it. We were just gathering up chum to stuff in Kyle’s bedsheets. That’s no reason to blow off someone’s hand.”

“There will be consequences for—AAAH!” The red gemstone embedded into her mask flashed, and Shadow Weaver recoiled, then dashed away from them, down the hall.

Catra stared up at her from the ground, eyes filled with awe. “I can’t believe it. You stood up to Shadow Weaver. And lived.”

“You’re telling me.” All the air left her at once, and Adora sank to the floor. “But it was worth it. For you.”

Glaring, the other girl scoffed. “I didn’t need you to protect me.”

“I know.” She shrugged. “But it wasn’t about that. I know you must think it’s easy being her favorite, but it’s not. I don’t think I could live with myself if you got hurt.”

Catra drew her knees closer to her chest. “I already get hurt.”

“Yeah. We all do. It’s how life is in the Fright Zone. But I couldn’t let her do that to you. Best friends watch out for each other, right?”

“I guess. Thanks, Adora.”

“Don’t mention it.”

They sat there in silence for a minute, before Catra’s form evaporated slowly, until it was like she’d never been there at all. She sighed, watching the walls disintegrate around her. “That’s not how it happened.”

“ _Simulation terminated._ ”

Obviously Catra’s hand had not been blown off that day, and Adora had appealed to Shadow Weaver to stop, but the rest of it was hindsight and wishful thinking. Too late to matter anymore.

Adora sighed and stood up, staring at the walls of the Crystal Castle around her. Light Hope emerged from the floor, regarding her with a neutral expression. “Couldn’t you have given me a little more time?”

“That was the end of the memory, and as you said yourself, that is not how events played out in reality. I must confess I still do not understand why you insisted on reliving a moment from your past. Your present relationship with Catra is a far more concerning problem.”

Grumbling, she shook her head. “It’s one of the few good memories I have left of her. Before everything… fell apart, and I realized just how much I couldn’t see how she really felt all those years. And of course it doesn’t help that you had to bring all that back up when we both got stuck in this place.”

“I am afraid I do not understand.”

“That _was_ you, wasn’t it? Pulling from our memories and making those simulations? Were you _trying_ to drive Catra away from me? Because I gotta say, it worked.”

Light Hope tilted her head to the side, blinking in confusion. “You seem to be assigning malice where none exists. Those simulations _were_ fabricated based on your memories of each other, yes. But predicting how each of you would interpret those memories would have been impossible, even for a system as advanced as mine.”

She huffed. “But you sure knew when to tell me to ‘let go,’ didn’t you? Was that really about Bow and Glimmer, and all my other friends? Or just her?”

“I am afraid I do not understand.”

“Urrghh.” Dragging her hands down her face, Adora finally sighed and stared up at the hologram, arms crossed. “Forget it.”

“You seem upset. Did I say something wrong? I apologize. My human protocols are a few centuries out of date.”

Adora blinked, and her frustration evaporated for the moment. “No, no, I’m not mad at you. Just… sad about what could’ve been, you know? If I’d paid more attention to what she was going through, would things have still turned out they way they did?”

“I don’t know the answer to that.”

“Yeah, I know. Just a thought.”

“Is this why you endeavored to change the outcome of the event, even though you knew it was only a simulation?”

She frowned, her shoulders sagging forward as she fought the urge to fold in on herself. “Maybe. It’s not like I’m trying to avoid reality. I know the Horde is still out there, still hurting people, and Catra’s still going along with it because it’s all she’s ever known. I just can’t ever get through to her.”

“So you thought that reliving more of your past with her would give you new insight into why she made the choices that led to the current state of your relationship?”

“I guess so. I’m not really any closer to understanding her.”

“What is there to understand? Learning to see things from an enemy’s perspective can be useful from a tactical standpoint. But all that really matters is that the Horde threatens Etheria. Catra supports the Horde. Your next course of action should be obvious.”

“But is she really bad because she believes in what the Horde is doing?” Adora gesticulated with her hands and paced in a semicircle, still facing the hologram. “Or was she right and I really was holding her back from her true potential this whole time? What if she just got tired of living in my shadow?”

“I am afraid I do not understand.”

“AAAAUUUUGH!” She punched the nearest wall, achieving nothing but a few sore knuckles. “I just want her back! I know things can’t go back to the way they were before, but I hoped maybe, if I could just get through to her, we could find some way to move forward, together! Away from Shadow Weaver, away from the Horde, just me and her!”

A tear ran down her cheek. “Why can’t I have that?”

“This attachment you have to Catra is clouding your judgment, which is why the path ahead of you seems so unclear. You must let go.”

“ _How_? Tell me how I’m supposed to let go of the first person I ever cared about more than myself! The person who knows me so well I can’t ever beat her in a way that matters! How am I supposed to just let all that go?”

“You must try. Only then will you understand what you must do.”

She exhaled slowly, forcing the rage out of her body. “You know what? Let’s just not talk about this anymore.” Her lips tugged upward in a bittersweet smile. “Can you run the simulation one more time?”

“I do not see what that will accomplish.”

“Just do it.”

“Very well.”

Adora breathed in deeply, and the first bomb left Catra’s hand, before plummeting into the water.

**Author's Note:**

> My entry for the "Promises" contest run by catradorazine on tumblr. The only guidelines were that it had to be SFW and had to feature Catra and Adora's relationship in some way. Since they've got way too much to unpack for me to convincingly turn things romantic in a story this short without either an AU or a huge timeskip, I settled on this. I also don't normally use song lyrics, but in this case they serve as fairly useful foreshadowing. Enjoy!
> 
> Update 06/09/2019: This won third place!


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